A wireless local area network (herein “WLAN”) is a network in which two or more terminal stations (herein “STA's”) wirelessly communicate with each other over a spatially limited area. The IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network Specifications (herein “802.11”) define a set of protocols for communications between devices in a WLAN. In a mode of operation known as infrastructure mode, a single WLAN includes one or more access points (AP's) acting as hubs for the network. Terminal stations (herein “STA's”) may each access the WLAN by communicating with one of the AP's.
Certain WLAN applications call for two or more STA's connected to a single WLAN to exchange data with each other through the wireless infrastructure, i.e., through one or more AP's. For example, a smartphone may be connected to a wireless display over a WLAN to display content from the smartphone on a larger screen. In this scenario, there will be a latency in communications between the wireless display and the smartphone, due to the time required for the data to travel over the WLAN infrastructure.
It would be desirable to provide simple and efficient techniques to reduce latency in communications between terminal stations in WLAN's operating in infrastructure mode.